Day 6, one more day to go!
I miss my kids… well my wife to, but my wife will be the same when she gets back, kids change and grow so fast… have you ever noticed how much it seems they have grown when you haven’t seen them for a while. The time we have with them is so short. I try to spend as much time with them while they still want Dad hanging around. I know it won’t be long until they will be saying "What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys see you later, can I have them please?" And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon”… you know the rest. Growing up, I swore that when I had kids I would never epitomize that song.
Having my own kids makes me wonder what Jesus was like as a kid.
Did he have a normal childhood?
No doubt Joseph and Mary raised him differently. Remember that they both were visited by an angel who made it very clear Jesus’ purpose for coming to the world. And I am certain that from his earliest memories he was indoctrinated with that sense of purpose. There is not clearer evidence of this than when his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover and Jesus was left behind. He was only twelve years old and when he was discovered amazing the temple teachers with his understanding, and when his parents questioned him he gave evidence of his sense of purpose, by his response to them.
Luke 2:49"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"
But when he was a baby or a toddler or even a small child…
Did he ever dirty his diaper and have to be changed, or was he potty trained from the get go? Did he ever go through the terrible two’s? Did he ever throw a temper tantrum in the check out line in the grocery store as a child? Did he have a crush on the girl next door or in school? Or did the girl next door have a crush on him. Did he play sports, did he fall down and skin his knee. Did he ever bang his thumb with a hammer when dad was teaching him how to be a carpenter? Or did he teach his dad how to be a better carpenter? Did he have to be taught anything or did he teach those around him? How much of him was God and how much was man. I know he was all man… but when did he realize he was also God? When did he know how it would all end? Was it a weight he carried his whole life, or a revelation that came from the desert experience preceding his ministry? Did he ever doubt himself? Did he know for sure that it was all as it was… or did he have to have the same faith we need in order to accept and believe who he was, and then live without any concrete evidence that he really was who he thought he was? Was there a time when all the memories of heaven came flooding into his mind… when he made the angels, when he made the earth, when he made us? Or did he have to live with the possibility that it was not as he believed because God required him to experience the same faith He required of us:
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Did he have to be certain of that which he could not see… or did he see it? The Bible says he experienced all that we experience… does that include doubt?
Or did he come out of the womb a walking, talking fully knowledgeable God who never experienced a normal childhood and lived a somber Holy life of piety waiting until the day he would die for us?
We all have this vision of a wise and all knowing Jesus, and he was. But did it start out that way, or did he have to have faith before he saw it that way? I bet he also had a sense of humor and laughed and told jokes and burped and farted and all the other things that make up life as a human. I bet he struggle with rejection and mean people. They had bullies then as they do now and he was probably a victim of one or more in school, especially if he was different… and I'm sure he was different. But I bet he was the same as us too. He got his feelings hurt, he got sore throats and ear infections and tummy aches, and when he got cut he bled… just like you and me. Whether that cut was an emotional cut to his heart or a physical cut to his body…
I bet Jesus was a lot more like us than we like to think… not the same as us (he was perfect and we are not)… but I bet he was a lot like us! I bet he had good friends and bad friends and girls that had crushes on him and girls he had a crush on and kids that teased him and times when he felt sad and alone and needed his mommy and times when he just wanted to sit in his dads lap and snuggle…
Yeah, I think Jesus was a lot more like us than most of us would like to believe... and I believe there also came a time when in faith He also knew he was God.
I miss my kids… well my wife to, but my wife will be the same when she gets back, kids change and grow so fast… have you ever noticed how much it seems they have grown when you haven’t seen them for a while. The time we have with them is so short. I try to spend as much time with them while they still want Dad hanging around. I know it won’t be long until they will be saying "What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys see you later, can I have them please?" And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon”… you know the rest. Growing up, I swore that when I had kids I would never epitomize that song.
Having my own kids makes me wonder what Jesus was like as a kid.
Did he have a normal childhood?
No doubt Joseph and Mary raised him differently. Remember that they both were visited by an angel who made it very clear Jesus’ purpose for coming to the world. And I am certain that from his earliest memories he was indoctrinated with that sense of purpose. There is not clearer evidence of this than when his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover and Jesus was left behind. He was only twelve years old and when he was discovered amazing the temple teachers with his understanding, and when his parents questioned him he gave evidence of his sense of purpose, by his response to them.
Luke 2:49"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"
But when he was a baby or a toddler or even a small child…
Did he ever dirty his diaper and have to be changed, or was he potty trained from the get go? Did he ever go through the terrible two’s? Did he ever throw a temper tantrum in the check out line in the grocery store as a child? Did he have a crush on the girl next door or in school? Or did the girl next door have a crush on him. Did he play sports, did he fall down and skin his knee. Did he ever bang his thumb with a hammer when dad was teaching him how to be a carpenter? Or did he teach his dad how to be a better carpenter? Did he have to be taught anything or did he teach those around him? How much of him was God and how much was man. I know he was all man… but when did he realize he was also God? When did he know how it would all end? Was it a weight he carried his whole life, or a revelation that came from the desert experience preceding his ministry? Did he ever doubt himself? Did he know for sure that it was all as it was… or did he have to have the same faith we need in order to accept and believe who he was, and then live without any concrete evidence that he really was who he thought he was? Was there a time when all the memories of heaven came flooding into his mind… when he made the angels, when he made the earth, when he made us? Or did he have to live with the possibility that it was not as he believed because God required him to experience the same faith He required of us:
Hebrews 11:1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Did he have to be certain of that which he could not see… or did he see it? The Bible says he experienced all that we experience… does that include doubt?
Or did he come out of the womb a walking, talking fully knowledgeable God who never experienced a normal childhood and lived a somber Holy life of piety waiting until the day he would die for us?
We all have this vision of a wise and all knowing Jesus, and he was. But did it start out that way, or did he have to have faith before he saw it that way? I bet he also had a sense of humor and laughed and told jokes and burped and farted and all the other things that make up life as a human. I bet he struggle with rejection and mean people. They had bullies then as they do now and he was probably a victim of one or more in school, especially if he was different… and I'm sure he was different. But I bet he was the same as us too. He got his feelings hurt, he got sore throats and ear infections and tummy aches, and when he got cut he bled… just like you and me. Whether that cut was an emotional cut to his heart or a physical cut to his body…
I bet Jesus was a lot more like us than we like to think… not the same as us (he was perfect and we are not)… but I bet he was a lot like us! I bet he had good friends and bad friends and girls that had crushes on him and girls he had a crush on and kids that teased him and times when he felt sad and alone and needed his mommy and times when he just wanted to sit in his dads lap and snuggle…
Yeah, I think Jesus was a lot more like us than most of us would like to believe... and I believe there also came a time when in faith He also knew he was God.
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